This really does surprise me. I believe this approach is reduced to the point of distortion.
Is a culture on a petri dish dirty? Sure looks dirty. Really gross. Better open it up and clean it. Biological (and microbiological) processes are not always pretty to look at. It does not follow that they are therefore contaminated.
Do we encourage the newb to reach in and scrub out all that dirty-looking braun hefe while it's fermenting? Looks dirty. Must be dirty. Or would that actually make matters worse?
Now
you're distorting the importance of cleanliness by using rather silly examples. I clearly wrote about cleaning equipment
after you're through using it. Not cleaning something halfway through.
Not every failure to follow the guidance you have provided is attributable to laziness or lack of willpower. We make choices in our homebrewing, and not all these choices would be right for commercial clients.
When the choice is between following good, solid brewing practice as recommended by homebrewing authorities as well as commercial brewing practice and
not following those practices, you have to admit there is no real choice at all. What opting to omit the practices amounts to is an arbitrary assignment of verbiage. Yes, you could call it 'lazy', and I have done.
You are correct that not all commercial practices are appropriate for home brewers. But to argue that in this instance is pure folly - we're talking about keeping equipment clean and proper yeast management, two of the most basic, most seminal aspects of brewing. There are no real options there.
I argue it is more likely that a newb is more likely to microbially contaminate the next batch by yeast washing than by pitching onto the cake. Is the increased chance of contamination through handling worth getting the new wort away from the old trub and krausen? That is a decision the homebrewer makes.
I don't necessarily disagree. I do argue, however, that with care any brewer at any level of skill can harvest yeast from a wide-mouthed container. Washing doesn't enter into the practice I've outlined, as I keep saying.
There is a diminishing returns issue when advancing from "beer I like to brew and consume on my table" to "the best it can possibly be".
If you're not going to make it the best it can possibly be, I don't understand the point of even starting. Where's the joy in mediocrity? "Look at this half-arsed beer I made! Ain't it so-so!"
What's the point? It's like starting to build a boat and purposefully leaving leaks in.
Maybe that's the disconnect here - I don't understand the point of deliberately
not pursuing excellence, for whatever reason.
Why are people using extracts when they could be doing AG?
I'm sorry, but this argument is obfuscation. The source of the fermentables does not necessarily have any bearing on the finished beer. I've had - and brewed - world-class extract beers that weren't merely as good as - they were
better than AG beers. Pursuit of excellence transcends whether you or Mr Briess mashed your grain.
Why are they priming with sugar when they could be krausening?
Because one technique isn't quantifiably 'better' than the other. Again, bollocks.
Why aren't they counterpressure filling their bottles?
Why aren't they using conicals?
Why aren't they [using my pet technology]?
Now you're really grasping at straws, as well as avoiding my central points. None of those things will quantifiably brew better beer. Clean equipment and properly-conducted yeast management
will demonstrably make better beer than dirty equipment and bad fermentation practices,
every single time.
If one boggled every time a homebrewer deviates (productively or counterproductively) from commercial processes then one would be a full--time boggler.
You misunderstand me. One boggles when an otherwise seasoned brewer does something deliberately against good brewing practice.
Note I didn't write 'homebrewer' or 'probrewer'; I wrote 'brewer'. Good brewing practice, at the very basic levels about which I've been writing in this thread, transcends brewery size. Equipment needs to be clean whether your fermenters are 1 gallon or 150bbl. Yeast needs to be managed whether you're fermenting a Jalapeno Imperial IPA for your own table or a fairly neutral American Amber Ale for a fifteen-state distribution network.
All I'm saying is that a wise brewer does not needlessly throw over thousands of years of brewery experience. There are countless generations of brewers behind us, all mumuring 'keep your stuff clean' and 'have a care with that brown slimy stuff'. If you just chuck that stuff out the window, you're not being innovative, you're not choosing another path, you're deliberately doing something against all those years of experience. That's not 'cool'; in the best case, it's flippant, in the worst, it's bleedin' stupid.
I'm gratified we are keeping this debate civil. I have no real dog in this fight either, other than a keen desire to help people brew the best beers and be the best brewers they can be. I'm not married to The Davis Technique or anything.
Respectfully,
Bob
